Category Archives: Irish Focus
A good day for Ireland, but where’s Copenhagen?
I was in the city centre on Friday night, just as the polls were preparing to close, and happened upon the hugely impressive illuminated Liberty Hall (hard to miss, in fact, and far and away the most dramatic installation the … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media
Tagged carbon, climate change, CO2, collapse, Comhar, Convery, Gormley, Irish Independent, Lisbon, Media, RTE, Sustainability
4 Comments
Comhar’s Green New Deal makes sense
At 11am today in the Irish Academy in Dublin’s Dawson Street, Comhar, the sustainable development council formally launches its Green New Deal for Ireland. It’s a genuinely impressive document, as I’ve outlined in the Irish Times today, with much to … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged climate change, CO2, Comhar, Convery, emissions, Energy, environment, Green New Deal, pollution, Sustainability, sustainable
2 Comments
Hot air, melting ice, ticking clock
Hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting Declan Ganley of Libertas until yesterday. Well, Declan is of course a stickler for accuracy, so perhaps ‘encountering’ would be a more accurate term. The brief encounter occurred around noon yesterday, as I was … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Arctic, climate, CO2, Coleman, Ganley, Greenland, IPCC, Karen Coleman, Lisbon, Nature, Newstalk, sea-levels, warming
3 Comments
In the frame for Lisbon
Am usually happiest to operate from the safety and relative anonymity of this side of the keyboards, but decided to face the music, so to speak, and contribute to a press briefing held in the dramatic setting of the upper … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
3 Comments
It has to be Yes to Lisbon
On June 11th, 2008, the day before what we now call Lisbon 1, my Irish Times piece was headed: “If you care about climate change, vote Yes to Lisbon”. There are those who’d say I got my answer. I’m not … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Nuclear, Sustainability
Tagged climate change, CO2, deBurca, Duncan Stewart, electricity, environment, Gormley, Lisbon, referendum
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Unicef’s change (for good?) of heart
Following last week’s piece, I was more than surprised that neither Tesco nor Unicef Ireland issued any response whatever on the day of publication (Thursday). It wasn’t until the Friday afternoon that Tesco submitted a letter to the Irish Times … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged charity, Everylittlehelps.ie, John Gibbons, multiple, supermarket, Tesco, Unicef, website
4 Comments
Tesco changes its tune on Unicef
Great to see a happy resolution to the bitter two-month long dispute between Tesco and Unicef over the slogan ‘Change for Good’. Below is the wording of a letter in Today’s Irish Times from Tesco’s marketing director, Kenny Jacobs: “I … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged clone town, competition, Everylittlehelps, hubris, monopoly, Multiples, Tesco
6 Comments
Every little helps?
Had been planning to write about the power of the multiples for some time, but what finally pushed me over the edge was a report in The Ticket in last Friday’s Irish Times, to the effect that the DVD cover … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus
Tagged censorship, Ireland, John Gibbons, Multiples, supermarket, Sustainability, Tesco, Tescopoly, Unicef
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Climate camp – Shannonbridge
Last week’s Climate Camp in Shannonbridge drew around 150 people to a site right beside the Shannonbridge peat-burning power plant. The week, which included workshops, bog walks and practical sessions on sustainability, culminated in a Day of Action on Saturday … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability
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In denial on the Nile delta
“The Nile Delta is a kind of Bangladesh story,” says Dr Rick Tutwiler, director of the American University in Cairo’s Desert Development Centre, quoted in a recent article in the Guardian by journalist Jack Shenker “You’ve got a massive population, … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Media, Sustainability
Tagged Guardian, Karen Coleman, Newstalk, Nile
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A sunny day on Sandymount strand
I’ve always loved Sandymount strand. When I first arrived in Dublin donkeys years ago, the first place I stayed was a ‘digs’ on Claremont Road in Sandymount. It might as well have been Ballydehob, for all I knew of the … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged climate change, Dublin, protest, Sandymount, SCC
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Breaking free of a vicious, narrow Theocracy
“Life for us children was to become one long hard struggle, trying to overcome the enormous disadvantage bestowed on us by being institutionalised. Our education was totally deficient – so much so thousands left the institutions illiterate. “We left the … Continue reading
Welcome to the New Emergency
They call it the ‘Greenhouse Gamble’. I’d call it the Wheel of Death. Either way, it’s a gizmo that looks like a cheesy prop from the National Lottery show, but in fact it has been developed by scientists from the … Continue reading
Posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged carbon, climate change, CO2, emissions, environment, IPCC, MIT, Permaculture
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Spirit of Ireland – Divine wind or hot air?
Last week, something pretty unusual showed up in a number of national newspapers. This was a full-page advert under the title ‘Spirit of Ireland‘. This tied in with the launch of a website and a big PR push through the … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Irish Focus, Nuclear, Sustainability
Tagged carbon, CO2, electricity, Energy, Ireland, John Gibbons, nuclear, Spirit of Ireland, Sustainability, Walton
7 Comments
A grandfather’s appeal to Obama
Politicians worry about the next election; business people worry about the next quarter. Who does that leave to worry about the longer term future? One top scientific expert believes the people who really do think ahead are parents, more specifically … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Global Warming, Irish Focus, Sustainability
Tagged CO2, emissions, environment, EU, Ireland, Jim Hansen, John Gibbons, NASA, Obama, Sustainability
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